[Federal Register Volume 63, Number 130 (Wednesday, July 8, 1998)]
[Notices]
[Pages 36933-36934]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 98-18071]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Geological Survey
Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC); Public Comment on the
Proposal To Develop the ``NSDI Framework Road Data Model Standard'' as
a Federal Geographic Data Committee Standard
ACTION: Notice; Request for comments.
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SUMMARY: The FGDC is soliciting public comments on the proposal to
develop a ``NSDI Framework Road Data Model Standard.'' If the proposal
is approved, the standard will be developed following the FGDC
standards development and approval process and will be considered for
adoption by the FGDC.
In its assigned federal leadership role in the development of the
National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI), the Committee recognizes
that FGDC standards must also meet the needs and recognize the views of
State and local governments, academia, industry, and the public. The
purpose of this notice is to solicit such views. The FGDC invites the
community to review the proposal and comment on the objectives, scope,
approach, and usability of the proposed standard; identify existing
related standards; and indicate their interest in participating in the
development of the standard.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before July 25, 1998.
CONTACT and ADDRESSES: Comments may be submitted via Internet mail or
by submitting electronic copy on diskette. Send comments via internet
to: ">[email protected]www.fgdc.gov.
A soft copy version, on a 3.5 x 3.5 diskette in WordPerfect 5.0 or
6.0/6.1 format, along with one hardcopy version of the comments may be
sent to the FGDC Secretariat (attn: Jennifer Fox) at U.S. Geological
Survey, 590 National Center, 12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, Reston,
Virginia, 20192.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Following is the complete proposal for the
``NSDI Framework Road Data Model Standard''.
Project Title: NSDI Framework Road Data Model Standard
Submitting Organization: FGDC Ground Transportation Subcommittee
Point of Contact: Bruce D. Spear, U.S. Department of Transportation,
Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), (202) 366-8870,
bruce.spear@bts.gov
Objectives
To provide a logical data model for identifying unique road
segments which are independent of cartographic or analytic network
representation. These road segments will form the basis for maintenance
of NSDI framework road data (through transactions or other means), and
for establishing links among road segments and attribute data.
Scope
In accordance with the FGDC Standards Reference Model, the NSDI
Framework Road Data Model is being proposed under the classification of
a data content standard. However, it also includes mandatory standards
for assigning and reporting identification codes as well as voluntary
guidelines for data collection under the classification of a process
standard.
This standard will specify a conceptual model for identifying
physical road segments that are temporally stable and independent of
any cartographic representation, scale, level of detail or network
application, and a process for combining the road segments to create
topologically connected analytical networks. The model will include a
set of locational descriptors for each road segment included in the
NSDI framework road layer, and a format for a unique identification
code to be assigned to each identified segment. The standard will also
specify a process for assigning, modifying and recording road segment
identification codes.
Guidelines for selecting and locating the end points of appropriate
road segments will be included as an informative appendix. The user of
the standard does not have to follow the guidelines to be in
conformance with the standard.
The basic road data model can be extended to cover other
transportation networks including railroads, commercial waterways,
pipelines, and public transit guideways. Other network layers may
require different process standards for assigning and recording
identification codes. These additional process standards are not
included as part of this initial standard.
Justification/Benefits
There are currently no national standards for identifying,
segmenting, or representing road segments in digital geo-spatial
databases. Database developers segment road networks to satisfy their
specific application needs; however, the specific segmentation scheme
may not be appropriate for other applications. Furthermore, there is no
standard approach for documenting the relationship between a digitized
road segment and the physical road feature that it represents.
Consequently, the exchange of attribute information between two
different road databases representing the same geographic area is
difficult, time consuming and error prone.
A national standard for identifying and documenting road segments
will facilitate data exchange among different users by providing well
defined, common reference segments that are tied to the physical road
feature, rather than to any cartographic or network abstraction of that
feature. Furthermore, the proposed standard road data model will allow
users to create customized topological networks from the reference
segments without modifying the properties of the reference segments
themselves. This will facilitate transactional updates to framework
road databases by allowing new road features to be added without
changing existing road segments.
Development Approach
A Road Data Model Team will be assembled to review the technical
development of the standard and to provide appropriate outreach to the
transportation community. (See POTENTIAL PARTICIPANTS, below.)
An initial draft of the road data model will be prepared under
contract, funded by BTS (in progress). The initial draft will be based,
in large part, on the preliminary road data models emerging from the
NSDI Framework Road Data Modeling Workshop, held at Wrightsville Beach,
NC, in December 1997. These preliminary data models are compatible with
the generic linear data model developed under the National Cooperative
Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Project 20-27.
The initial draft will be reviewed by the Road Data Model Team and
revised based on concerns and recommendations expressed by team
members. Depending on the nature of the review comments, one or more
meetings may be convened to resolve differences among the team. Team
members will also be responsible for informing their constituencies
about the road data model standard and for collecting and summarizing
the requirements of their respective stakeholders groups.
[[Page 36934]]
The road data model development effort will be closely coordinated
with NCHRP Project 20-27 (Phase 3), which focuses in the development of
implementation guidelines for multimodal transportation location
reference systems. It will also provide a focus for possible follow-up
workshops to Wrightsville Beach.
Once there is general agreement among the Road Data Model Team that
the model meets agreed-upon requirements, the model will be submitted
for formal public review through the FGDC's Standards Development
Process.
Development and Completion Schedule
Solicitation and selection of Road Data Model Team--May
1998.
Initial draft of road data model by BTS contractor--June
1998.
Review and revisions to road data model--summer and fall
1998.
At least one meeting of the full team will take place
after the initial road data model has been delivered and distributed to
team members.
Team members will be responsible for informing and
soliciting feedback from their constituencies about the standards
development effort through presentations at annual meetings, articles
in newsletters, etc.
The road data model will be prototyped on one or more road
databases to assess implementation and maintenance issues, requirements
for additional tools, etc.
Revised draft of road data model prepared by BTS
contractor and approved by majority of road data model team--December
1998
Road Data Model Standard submitted for public review
through FGDC--January 1999
Informational presentations on road data model to be made
at major transportation and GIS conferences, including TRB, GIS-T
Symposium, etc.
Final Road Data Model Standard approved as FGDC standard--
June 1999.
Resources Required
Funding support for contractor to prepare initial road data model
and to revise model in response to review comments will be borne by the
Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
Participation on the Road Data Model Team will be on a voluntary
basis. Time spent by team members to familiarize themselves with the
NSDI framework and linear data models, review draft documents,
participate in team meetings, and serve as liaison to their respective
constituencies will be borne by each member's agency or organization.
Some additional FGDC funding may be needed to support travel to
meetings for some team members.
Potential Participants
Team members will include representatives from the FGDC Ground
Transportation Subcommittee, Facilities Working Group, Base
Cartographic Subcommittee, Cultural and Demographic Subcommittee, and
Framework Focus Group. Additional representation will be sought from
key transportation and spatial data stakeholders, including the
Transportation Research Board (TRB) GIS-T Task Force, the Intelligent
Transportation Systems (ITS) standards working group, the American
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the
Open GIS Consortium (OGC) Transportation Work Group, NSGIC, NaCO, and
other interested stakeholders.
Related Standards
There are a number of standards for roads and other transportation
currently being promulgated by different stakeholders. In general these
standards have been designed to meet the specific requirements of the
stakeholder groups sponsoring their development, and do not generally
satisfy the basic NSDI requirements for database sharing and
transactional updating. Nevertheless, these standards will be
investigated as part of this development effort to determine
commonalities and opportunities for integration.
The ITS Standards and Protocol Subcommittee has proposed adoption
of the Geographic Data Files (GDF) as its standard for digital road
databases. This standard does not meet all of the requirements of the
broader GIS for transportation (GIS-T) community, particularly with
respect to location referencing.
The DIGEST/Vector Product Format standard is an interchange
standard for spatial data used by the U.S. Department of Defense, NATO,
and the Transportation Association of Canada. DIGEST/VPF. This
standard, like GDF does not meet all of the requirements of the GIS-T
community.
A draft Transportation Network Profile (TNP) was developed for the
Spatial Data Transfer Standard (SDTS) several years ago, but was never
submitted for formal adoption due to a number of unresolved issues.
Adoption of a standard road data model may help resolve many of these
outstanding issues, and lead to resumption of the SDTS TNP development.
A Ground Transportation Data Content Standard is being proposed to
provide a common set of entity/attribute/domain definitions for
transportation features. These two efforts will be closely coordinated,
and the road data model will provide the foundation on which
transportation features in the content standard will be defined.
ITS is also proposing the establishment of a national linear datum,
consisting of well defined and accurately located control points from
which linear measurements can be made along a road segment. The
proposed road data model is compatible with the ITS linear datum. Every
effort will be made during the development of the road data model to
maintain this compatibility so that framework road segments can fully
utilize the linear datum, if it is actually implemented.
Other Targeted Authorization Bodies
None at this time. However, depending on the acceptance of the
proposed road data model by the transportation community, it may be
appropriate to submit it to ANSI and ISO at a later date.
Dated: June 29, 1998.
Richard E. Witmer,
Chief, National Mapping Division.
[FR Doc. 98-18071 Filed 7-7-98; 8:45 am]
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